Claire Tole-Moir
Head of Department
Lot 5†
Gary Moore: A Modified Charvel San Dimas Electric Guitar, 1982,
20 November 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£4,000 - £5,000
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Fred Lawton
Cataloguer
Megan Littlewood
Sale Coordinator
Rebecca Anthony
Associate Specialist
Gary Moore: A Modified Charvel San Dimas Electric Guitar,
1982,
serial no. 1557 stamped on neckplate, double-cut, offset, contoured body with white finish, now with single EMG pickup with one volume control, white plastic scratchplate, Floyd Rose tremolo, Jackson maple neck with skunk stripe, Indian rosewood fingerboard, dot markers, lock-in nut, headstock with logo and Sperzel-type tuners, in plush-lined, rectangular hardshell case with extra Floyd Rose unit and tremolo arm, guitar 38 1/2in (98cm) long
serial no. 1557 stamped on neckplate, double-cut, offset, contoured body with white finish, now with single EMG pickup with one volume control, white plastic scratchplate, Floyd Rose tremolo, Jackson maple neck with skunk stripe, Indian rosewood fingerboard, dot markers, lock-in nut, headstock with logo and Sperzel-type tuners, in plush-lined, rectangular hardshell case with extra Floyd Rose unit and tremolo arm, guitar 38 1/2in (98cm) long
Footnotes
Provenance:
This guitar was put together by Gary's guitar tech, Keith Page, from parts of Charvels used by Gary from his time in the band G-Force (1979/80) and from later models. It underwent major modification sometime before October 1985. Its original chromed scratchplate and twin humbuckers are seen as photographed for the cover of Gary's 1983 album, Dirty Fingers. The pickups were then removed and replaced by a single EMG active pickup, with the battery accessed by removing the replacement plastic scratchplate. The neck was also replaced by a Jackson-brand example.
Interviewed in the March 1987 issue of Making Music magazine, Gary talks about the Charvel guitars: "My guitars may look like Strats, but most of them are made for me by Keith Page... We get guitars from Grover Jackson, take them apart and put them back together with different pickups and necks. We use EMGs as lot of the time, and I find that for live work they're the best pickups I've ever heard, they really cut through, and more importantly, there's no noise."
The guitar was semi-retired on the Wild Frontier tour in 1987 as Gary had switched to PRS guitars. Having replaced the pickups in the PRS guitars with EMG active pickups, the results were not all that satisfactory, so this Charvel was brought back into service. Very much a live performance guitar, it did not feature on many, if any, recordings. It was used for the 1989 After The War tour with the replacement Jackson neck. It is somewhat short in scale but it was a last-minute request from Gary to have a rosewood board neck and this was the only stock Grover Jackson had in at the time. It was not used after 1990 as the 'blues' phase of Gary's career took over and side lined the 'super-Strat' style of guitars.
Live Performances:
- Belga Beach Festival, Run For Cover Tour, 10th August 1986
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8feKGQlDzQg
- Live At Isstadion Stockholm: Wild Frontier Tour, 1987 Virgin Music Video VVD 149, played on the track The Loner:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rYCZVSoCk4&list=RD3rYCZVSoCk4&start_radio=1
- Live In Belfast, 1989, a BBC TV broadcast:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg2i8u-eOLA&list=RDtg2i8u-eOLA&start_radio=1